Just beat Second Sight, and it's my Game Story of the Year..

[Tebunker]

Yeah, I said it, the best story in any game this year so far.

One of the better written ones in a long while, you actually give a damn about an action game character. On top of that the plot was well done, and I could see this being a big underground kind of game, where it doesn't have a lot of commercial success but is loved by all who play it.

You've probably seen reviews that knock it's length, but Riddick was shorter and didn't have half the story of this game.

I can't recommend this title more than enough, worth it for a rent to beat or to own. I really enjoyed everything Free Radical has done, and this title shows that this is a class A studio in all respects.

Probably the thing I loved most was the odd amount of freedom to approach stages. You could seriously tackle things three or four different ways. From strict stealth to run and gun to complete psi destruction. Of course they made no penalites for choosing one way or another, thus making run and gun a little too easy, but I think I'd rather be rewarded than punished like in other stealthy kind of games.

The only thing I didn't like? Was probably the length, it's just long enough to leave you wanting a few more stages or mulitplayer or just a few more tastes. It's like having a really good slice of cheesecake but being able to eat all the crust...

Still highly recommended. Loved it.


Wanted to add that the Earth Blast Minigame is almost worth the price of admission alone...

[Nth Power]

I played the demo awhile back and was really impressed.  I almost picked it up the other day, but I'll probably wait until it goes down in price.

[stiffler]

I almost picked it up the other day, but I'll probably wait until it goes down in price.

When it does I am all over it.  I'm trying to remember if I ever pay full price anymore...

[DarkEL]

Hmmm - I'll have to rent it sometime and check it out.

Thanks for the tip

[stiffler]

I bought this one tonight.  It was $39 new.  I hope it is as good as you say since I prefer <$30 for my gaming!

What sold me was the ability to either run-and-gun OR use the psi-powers.  I like that you can do both since it makes me feel like I have freedom rather than rails.

I look forward to seeing the minigame as well.

[aledromo]

Keep me posted, Stiffler.  I enjoyed Psi Ops but have heard that the powers aren't all too satisfying in this mind romp.

[Yossarian]

I'm on mission 9 or so, I like this game a lot.  The psi powers are totally fun.  I just got the possession ability, it's awesome to possess a guard, shoot your buddies, then take a header off a 50' ledge

Graphics are so so and the default camera position is too far from the character for my taste.  A couple levels are a little too puzzle-ly for me, like the asylum.

Well worth the $20 I got it for off ebay.

[Kevin Grey]

BTW EB Games is offering the Xbox version of this for $20 new.  Ordered it this afternoon.

[TheMissingLink]

Awesome, I also got it for 20 bucks - hope I like it!

[Jeff]

Does it have lame boss fights, a la Psi Ops? I enjoyed Psi Ops a lot, but a few of the boss fights I thought were stupid, and uncessarily difficult.

edit: went ahead and got for $17.99 at EB  (benefits of being a Gamespot Complete member)

[Draco]

The new $20 price tag on EBGames is very tempting. I LOVED Psi-Ops, but I'm really on the fence with this one and am afraid that only a CG effect will push me over. Anyone else love this game, or loved it more that Psi-Ops?

[Yossarian]

oh no, repeatable dirty disc error in "teamwork" mission    that really blows.  I never had that problem before in over 30 games.  I do have a reportedly crummy Thompson dvd but it never choked before.

for $20 you can't go wrong tho (assuming you don't have the problem I did).  great story, fun psi effects.

[stiffler]

Two weeks after I bought it (and less than a month after release) and the price is cut in half.  Man, I wish I would have waited! :oops:

[Tebunker]

I kinda wish I had waited but I beat it and traded it in for 20 bucks, so it's a wash....

No stupid boss battles, there are some tricky puzzles.

And it's 19.99 for Gamecube too...

[Yossarian]

Second Sight has turned into a very expensive game for me... I bought a new xbox today so I could finish it.  Then I had to get a memory card to transfer my saved games over

[Mystic95Z]

I called the local EB and that price is good in the store as well. I might have to stop and pick up a copy...

-Tony

[Kevin Grey]

Anyone play the Cube version?  According to my shipping email from EB Games I may have inadvertenlty purchased the Cube version vice Xbox.  How is the framerate and loading times for the cube?  Are vibration effects significant in the game? I prefer to use my Wavebird.

[Jancelot]

Free one-day shipping from ebgames.  X-Box version anyway.  Mine's on it's way.

http://www.ebgames.com/ebx/product/244051.asp

[Greggy_D]

WOW!...thanks for the free one-day shipping tip.  Just ordered.

[Jeff]

Free one-day shipping from ebgames.  X-Box version anyway.  Mine's on it's way.

http://www.ebgames.com/ebx/product/244051.asp

Yeah, the day after they shipped mine, they offered the free overnight.  :roll:  So mine's coming by pack mule.

Funny thing is I could've just gone to EB 2 miles from here and bought it for the same price.

[ElijahPrice]

Ohh crap guys... I have to go shopping for some stuff at the mall and now I am going to have to run by EB games and get this. ...oh the wallet pains me...

[Tebunker]

Kevin Grey, you'll be kosher, the games are identical... and I never noticed any special rumble effects...

[Kevin Grey]

Kevin Grey, you'll be kosher, the games are identical... and I never noticed any special rumble effects...

Cool, thanks.

[ElijahPrice]

I picked it up last night and got through trianing... pretty cool so far, especially for 20 bones.  Thanx for the recommendation Tebunker...

[Kevin Grey]

Received Second Sight this morning and put in a an hour or so (like Elijah I just made it past the well done training mission.)

Pretty impressed so far.  Although I'm in the minority I like the Psi-Powers implementation better than Psi-Ops, at least as far as intuitive use goes.  I really like the effects of the use of the Psi powers, especially the Psychic Blast or whatever its called.  Cool distortion effect followed by smashing individual through glass windows= fun.

Stealth representation seems to be pretty full bodied.  Almost as many options as a MGS game- you can hid under desks, in lockers that give you the ability to peek out, you can sneak up behind enemies for a quiet takedown, wall hug, lean out of corners, the whole kit and kaboodle.  

I love, love, love the computer interfaces in this game.  While not as gee-whiz wow as those of Doom 3 they are much more robust and feel like using a real computer. I loved seeing a chat window between a guard and his wife.  Made me feel bad for taking him down, especially when she kept prompting "I miss u" after he had been taken out.  

Story elements seem very well done.  The training mission was one of the best I've played in a while while still adhering to the cliche miltiary training camp strucutre.  On nice touch was having the guards sit down on the ground, raise one arm, and say "I'm out" when you took them out with your training pistol.  

I'm tempted to say that graphics are a mixed bad but that wouldn't do them justice.  They are very nice.  Not super high poly but each character is very distinctive, animated well, and looks nothing like the bog-standard 3D characters you get in most games.  Environments are very atmospheric.  My only niggle with the graphics is an overall fuzziness to everything.  

Controls could use a bit of work.  There is a very imprecise, muddy to feel to moving the character around.  I really wish this game had the same "snap" to the controls as the MGS series.

Camera control is also a mixed bag.  The default, locked-in camera view doesn't do a really good job of being oriented where you are heading and letting you get a good lay of the land.  Its also not dynamic and doesn't react to things like wall hugging and leaning the way MGS's locked in camera does.

On the positive side you can free the camera with one button press so it doesn't hamper things too much. Unfortunately there's no option to invert camera controls so its taking me some to get used too.

Overall, I'm very impressed and looking forward to playing more.  If the story develops as well as Tebunker (and several others) have said then we definitely may have another cult classic on our hands similar to Beyond Good & Evil.  

Second Sight only sold 6,000 copies in the month of September.  Fable, on the other hand sold 600,000!

[ElijahPrice]

Wow Grey...spot on with that summary.  Exactly my thoughts.  Though I must say, I am looking forward to getting home and playing some more of it especially getting into the story and using the psi-force.

[Draco]

Thanks for the summary Grey; I think I'm gonna pass on this one though. I liked Psi-Ops, but there are a ton of other games on my backlist and this one just doesn't sound like the must play sleeper BG&E was.  Even if it is only $17, just no time.

By the way, how did you find out the sales figures for Second Sight?

[angrycoder]

I just got an email the other day from Codemasters saying the game was coming to the PC in november.

Is it mostly a 1st person or 3rd person game? I am wondering if the controls would be better or worse on the PC.

I doubt they are going to give it the full PC treament with higher res textures and such, but even if it is a straight port it may look nicer with some anti-aliasing and filtering.

[Kevin Grey]

Thanks for the summary Grey; I think I'm gonna pass on this one though. I liked Psi-Ops, but there are a ton of other games on my backlist and this one just doesn't sound like the must play sleeper BG&E was.  Even if it is only $17, just no time.

By the way, how did you find out the sales figures for Second Sight?

You can find sales figures for most games over in the forums on Gaming-Age.  The signal to noise ratio is insanely low on that forum but there is no aspect of console gaming (and to a much lesser extent PC gaming) that isn't endlessly discussed.  

Sales are a huge interest to the Gaming-Age community.  The September sales were just released two days ago.

[Kevin Grey]

BTW, put several more hours in this afternoon and completed two more missions.  My opinion continues to grow.

The Psi-powers are very cool  and they really give you a lot of different options on how to proceed.  It makes stealth in most areas a very viable option.  The effects themselves are very cool, particularly charm and projection.  

The second flashback mission was very impressive- much more epic scale than I was expecting there and the writers do a good job of fleshing out your teammates.  

One area I failed to mention in my previous post- the game has an outstanding music score.  Probably one of the best I've heard this year.

[Sparhawk]

Rented it. pLayed about 2 hours and lost interest. Don't like the endless respawn of guards, being forced into stealth is as bad as being forced to fight all the time.

[Yossarian]

I just finished it tonight.  Finally a game with a good ending!  Actually I thought it was pretty great.

[ElijahPrice]

Thats good to hear grey... I was looking to go home and play last night but I got dragged out to the bars (which was actually fun of course).  But otnight...I shall devote some well earned down time to the game.  Its really a nice filler until these other games come out starting next week.

[Jumangi]

There were things I liked about the game but the poorly done stealth gameplay got old and rather annoying to keep dealing with.

[Kevin Grey]

Wow, I want to thank Tebunker and others in thris (and the old thread on GG) for recommending this one.  Playing this and Paper Mario 2 this week and I'm playing two of the best games I've played all year.

Second Sight really is fantastic.  I love the level design and variety and find the game equally engaging whether its focusing on stealth or action.  The flashback missions are some of my favorite parts of the game and these missions are providing a very palpapble sense of dread as the team travels further into Siberia.  

Story execution is superb.  The dialogue is generally very good and the direction and animation in the cinema sequences is excellent.  

I'm guessing I'm about halfway through or a little past it and it just keeps getting better.

[ElijahPrice]

I've got to agree with you... thanx tebunker.  One of the smaller details that is really enjoyable about this game is its cinematics...? (Don't know if thats exactly how to put it).  What I mean is that the game does a good job working in the plot development to the game play and even giving you a  good sense of being in the story.  Switching the camera is almost like directing a film.  You have the stationary camera follow you across the hall and then you peek in the door.  pull back and swing the camera around to check the hallway...etc... I love the multiple camera options.

It also mixes up the advantages of the different psi-abilities well.  At one point you use charm a lot, then the projection, then psi-force...etc.  It refreshens the game with a new strategy.  BTW- projection is so cool to learn the movements of the guard and get through a tight spot without being seen....

And then on top of it all the flash-backs really draw you into the unfolding story, and make you care (like you said above).  I am a bit of the way through, I am sure I'll be back to praise it more because it has been a very enjoyable game and its been a while since I have had this much interest in a game I didn't follow or expect prior to release.

[Jeff]

Just started this, and not sure how to save. Is it automatic? I completed military training, and just started the mission: "experimentation". I haven't encountered any 'save points', but surely don't want to start all over from the beginning if I just turn the system off.

Btw, really enjoying it so far. The voice acting is good, and it's nice they give the main character a voice himself.

[Kevin Grey]

Just started this, and not sure how to save. Is it automatic? I completed military training, and just started the mission: "experimentation". I haven't encountered any 'save points', but surely don't want to start all over from the beginning if I just turn the system off.

Btw, really enjoying it so far. The voice acting is good, and it's nice they give the main character a voice himself.

Unfortunately the game only hard saves after completing a full mission (you will see an update that it is autosaving).  There are several checkpoints within a mission that you can restart from but if you turn the game off you will have to start over from the beginning of the level.

[Jeff]

Unfortunately the game only hard saves after completing a full mission (you will see an update that it is autosaving).  There are several checkpoints within a mission that you can restart from but if you turn the game off you will have to start over from the beginning of the level.

Ok, i exited (no choice, have to leave) and then restarted to see where it'd let me take up from, and it is letting me restart from "experimentation" where I just left. schew!

[ElijahPrice]

STREETS

Quick commentary on the STREETS level, not really spoilers but if you haven't been there I guess don't read.

So the first time through I nail the gang member instead of the cop, reset...

Second Time, I just felt like having fun and psi-forced the girl with the gat, reset...

The third time I get serious, and go all the way to the apartment and back to the gang members and run into one of them by accident, they start lighting me up,  turned off game....

I can't believe I defend them from all those suits and then they light me up for running into one of them...geez.  I will confront them with my anger tonight.

[/b]